I have to support Black Unicorn's use of the courts. Really, what choices were available?
So, I, for one, think Black Unicorn took the best and most reasonable approach. I'd be very interested in which course (or some other undefined course I didn't think of) that the anarchists feel would be reasonable...
Let's see. I didn't read the thread in question but am reasonably familiar with the unsavory debating tactics of Mr. Tmp from other discussions. As I understand it, Mr. Unicorn and Mr. Tmp, their true identities safely concealed behind their respective handles, engaged in a minor flame war and major ass-kicking contest related to the topics of crypto, privacy, and nasty authoritarian governments. Mr. Tmp, following his usual modus operandi, engaged in some reasonably clever hand-waving, out-of-context quoting, misdirection, and misrepresentation at the expense of a number of people, including Mr. Unicorn. All this would have been water under the bridge were it not for the fact that Mr. Unicorn, who is wont to travel in circles considerably more conservative than most of his political writings, inadvertantly disclosed his identity in the thread while showing a friend how to use Usenet. Certainly this blunder was no fault of Mr. Tmp. Ultimately, as a consequence of this leak, certain business associates of Mr. Unicorn, with no knowlege of Usenet or the context of the discussion, were exposed to portions of it and the identity of Mr. Unicorn was disclosed. Again no fault of Mr. Tmp. Said business associates, being relatively anal upper-class European types with a great respect for authority, were singularly unamused by Mr. Unicorn's political views and the even worse things falsely attributed to him by Mr. Tmp in the heat of discussion. Mr. Unicorn became worried that his business might suffer as a consequence. Since I personally believe that one should not discriminate in doing business based on someones political beliefs, I would certainly characterize this as a moral failure on the part of Mr. Unicorn's business associates, and not the fault of Mr. Tmp. Finally, Mr. Unicorn, mustering all the legal and financial resources at his disposal, threatens to skewer Mr. Tmp for alleged libel, and Mr. Tmp, lacking similar resources and unable to risk a courtroom defeat, is forced to go on Usenet and publicly eat you-know-what with a large wooden spoon. Since Mr. Tmp is not well-liked in the Cypherpunk community, response to this sorted tale consists mostly of praise for Mr. Unicorn, and silence by those who might have been critical, but who don't want Mr. Unicorn to treat them the same way. I don't think there are any heros in this story. I think it is a dark day for freedom of expression in general and Usenet in particular. In the past, I have engaged in lots of heated discussions on many hot-button topics, on Usenet and in many other forums, sometimes under my own name, and occasionally under a pseudonym. I have been called many vile things along the way, and have had my views on occasion misrepresented far more cleverly than Mr. Tmp could imagine or articulate. Nonetheless, if I found myself losing work because an unpopular view of mine came to light, filing a lawsuit against another Usenet poster would be just about the last thing I would think of doing. Particularly if the discussion took place under a pseudonym and I was the person who had broken my own anonymity. Antics like this threaten the entire concept of Usenet as a reputation-based cooperative anarchy. The solution to Mr. Tmp is to put him in your killfile, not sue him into submission. -- Mike Duvos $ PGP 2.6 Public Key available $ mpd@netcom.com $ via Finger. $